February 14, 2018

Opt-out organ donation – will it work?

In October last year Theresa May announced plans to bring in opt-out organ donation to address the shortage of organs donated and the number of people on the waiting list for a transplant. A public consultation into this proposed system was launched before Christmas and is open until 6 March 2018.

But is the proposed system evidence based? Are there signs from other countries with opt-out systems that it increases the number of organs available for transplantation? What does the data say about whether it will work?